Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 51: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

] i ua kh BV Whe Dstt Hap ae OC 4 r By EDGAR FRANKLIN Author of ‘‘ Where Was i?’’ **‘ Reguiar People,’’ ete. oe WHAT HAS OCCURRED IN PART I AMUEL B. HARKTON is decidedly complacent over the growing success of his wholesale hardware business; in fact, he is developing a prominent bump of conceit. His cousin, Tom Wilbur, head of the sales department, coming in to announce that he has almost clinched a million-dollar contract with Brink, Deane & Caswell, is somewhat irritated by Harkton’s manner, and suggests that the fact that Harkton’s wife, Helen, works in the research laboratory of the Scathmore Foundation, may be taken by the business world to indicate that Harkton himself can’t make ends meet. Harkton blows up and asserts he will put an end to his wife’s employ- ment and make her remain home in Montvale with their children, Dolly and Sam. His wife, nevertheless, goes to work next day, and Harkton is further irritated by being informed, when he calls the Foundation, that Mrs. Harkton and one Rivers, a scientist, are locked in a laboratory and cannot be interrupted. Later the watchman tells him on the telephone that they have left, and that Rivers was carrying a traveling bag. CHAPTER _ V. WHAT SHE HAD DONE. T may be said that Thomas Wilbur reeled. This was something he did very rarely, because he was an unusually well-balanced, even a hardened, salesman. But he reeled this time. ‘Sam!’ he gasped. ‘‘ I—I can’t believe that! We—why, we’ve both known Helen ever since she was a little kid, Sam. Ifa This story began in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for January 31. = | 521 woman beyond suspicion ever lived, it’s Helen! Why, she never even—”’ “You needn’t defend my wife for me,” Mr. Harkton smiled bitterly. ‘‘ I’m not even- allowing myself to—to think an accusation yet, because i don’t know. But I mean to — Know damned soon!” He squared his shoulders, as befitted a strong man about to meet such a crisis. He laid aside his unlovely pipe—the good old pipe that had been smoked so many times